CEDARHILL

Shooting on Sunday

One of Bill's favorite things to do is to shoot models in old abandoned places. We were lucky to find a few on Sunday, but couldn't resist the old Depot either which has been restored. I agree with Bill. It is much more fun to shoot locations if you have a model and Kara offered to hang with us for the day for just that purpose.She was a great model! The trick with modeling I think is to make slight adjustments - not big ones...and Kara got that! Moving a shoulder or shifting your eyes or the angle of your nose is enough to make the dif. between a great shot and a good one.

   

The last run

 
Bill and I were out yesterday to photograph the Heisler and picked this great section of track which has a nice bend it as our spot. We waited patiently until we heard the Heisler come into view and started snapping! Right after this picture there was a Big Pfffftttt! And the train stopped. The little engine had thrown another rod!  This late in the season means it won't be back in service this year. And plans are, to replace this engine with a 1774, which is bigger for next year.

Overlooking Miami

 
Bill Woody flew in for the weekend and we always have to shoot when he's here.
Yesterday we were up early and found the road in Miami which winds you out of town and up into the hills overlooking the mine.It was the same road they ran the day before for the Copper Crawl which is both a 5K and 13K run..mostly uphill!
    

3rd in Hand Mucking

 

This weekend was Boom town Spree in Miami where they celebrate the towns mining history. Part of that process is to hold contests of "mining activities", like drilling holes in rocks and spikes into the ground....and mucking; shoveling gravel. My friend Deb, has won the women's hand mucking almost every year and is the State Champion Hand Mucker. Something you wouldn't expect when you first meet her. She and her sister Cheryl are both athletic....and this year they came in just a few tenths of a second apart. 37 seconds plus. Cheryl won 1st place and Deb took second. And surprisingly, I took 3rd at 40seconds. I feel great even being within shoutin distance of the Yerkovichs!
 

Bill Woody and I were there to shoot the event but it seems they needed more women in the contest.
And, by the time they got done recruiting they had 8 women...including me. So Woody took the pictures and I shoveled! Contestants included a mother of 3, a doctor, a grandmother, a college student, a massage therapist, a forest service ranger and me.You get timed on filling the cart with 500lbs of gravel, and after watching Deb and Cheryl go first, it seems the key is full shovels, little movement and don't look up. Hey, and i got $75 for third place!  SEE Boomtown Spree- Photo Album to the left.

 

Easter Parade

Even though the rains came, Kip and Molly pulled off the First Annual Easter Parade this morning with over 40 entries from most fanciful  hat to group awards. The morning came complete with an Easter Bunny (see the shot below. Bunny is entering from the right), and the song Easter Parade blaring from the Grand Stand of the Arts Center.  If you want to see ALL the pics from this morning..

 

Go to:  www.pictage.com   EVENT # 640733

Working girl

OK, so the Spring Edition of the paper went to press on the 1st and got distributed last week. My wonderful creative director, Jennifer, managed to accomplish this....AND prep for her big move to Houston Texas, and still maintain her sanity. Don't know how she does it. There was much to talk about this time from the new Heisler steam engine to rafting on the Salt. Since every paper from here to Phoenix has done a story on the steam engine, I decided to focus on the people who RUN the steam engine. Interesting characters - every one! However, the most daunting task was doing a feature on Kip who is our Main Street Director and one of those individuals who is such a rich vein of material - both for who he is...and what he has done...that it is hard to know just what avenue to take in doing a feature.

Also had the fine opportunity to send nephew Eric and friend Mike down the Salt with the Salt River Rafting Company the Salt,as my reporters for the Spring edition. They had fun and I got some much needed xtra time to finalize the paper and still get a good story on rafting.

And just a week before the paper went to press I discovered a new bakery/bistro in Superior- TOAST- run by two people who migrated here from Sonoma, California. Mary Karlin is an award winning cook and author of "Wood Fired Cooking" Mary K  Bert bakes breads every Tues and Thursday and pizzas on Wed and Fridays. Not to mention the cookies! The food is worth driving 100 miles for....let alone just up over the hill to Superior. Mary was one of the original founders of ramekins which was awarded the 2005 Award of Excellence "best Cooking School of the Year"...and does classes in your home. So of course I'm going to have her come to cedarhill and teach a class. But first...I need to build a wood-fired oven!

THEN- immediately following 3 weeks of intense activity to get out the paper (because I always wait a tad too long to start writing all the features AND following up with my advertisers), I started a week long process of "training" to work for the US Census. This was the first time in years and years that anyone has ever told me I HAD to be somewhere from 8 to 5. It was painful. And much daily stuff did not get done. Like banking, grocery shopping etc. Don't know how people live this life!

Now that I'm trained though I can somewhat set my own hours. Although I need to put in 40 hours during a 7 day week. Piece of cake!  (Hence the reason I'm not blogging as much as before.)

Cheers,

L  

A hummer

Grabbing the right opportunity requires that one is prepared at all times. Like having your camera..and the right lens...when a hummer comes into view. This little guy spent minutes at this section of flowers and it took me that long to decide to run upstairs and grab a camera. I just barely got this shot before he was on to another section of yard. 

Mother's Bearded Iris

Spring has arrived and the iris are blooming. This bearded iris is one of my mothers which she transplanted several times, over several moves, so that it could arrive in Arizona. It's funny, the things we leave behind us which bring joy to others. Every time I look at these iris I'm reminded of mothers ability to set anything in the ground - willy nilly- and look forward to seeing what sprouted. She cared none for grand design, grabbing opportunity where it presented itself. She was willing to buy iris - sight unseen- and wait for what popped up. Sometimes...it was a bearded iris.

 The key to her success I think was that she kept planting.